gombeen
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of gombeen
1860–65; < Irish gaimbín interest, especially exorbitant interest, literally, bit, small piece, diminutive of gamba lump, hunk
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sports pundit Jarlath Burns said the use of "Gombeen Irish" had no place in the GAA.
From BBC
Gombeen′man, a grasping and usurious money-lender in Ireland.
From Project Gutenberg
I slackened and saw them drop into the road and there remain, mystified, no doubt, by the astonishing variety of scents, from goat to gombeen man, that presented themselves.
From Project Gutenberg
We passed Stephen Casey and the gombeen man cornering the disputed calves in the sympathetic accord that such an operation demands.
From Project Gutenberg
They disliked him, and he was an upstart and a gombeen man and a usurper, and such foolishness, in the mouths of every one of them.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
